Want to raise your monthly rent by $50-$90? Pay late
I cannot believe how frequently some people are late on rent.Over here, if you turn your rent in after the 5th of the month, there is a $50 late fee. If we don't have rent from you after a certain point, we have to file with a lawyer who charges us $40 to file and prep for a court date. That $40 is charged to the resident.
There are some residents here that pay late most months. Usually the delinquency report has five or six people on it and often they are the same people that you have seen on the report in the months following. There are rarely any surprises.
I understand that some people get behind, sure, but the thing is that no one seems to ever catch up--at least not among those that are categorically late.
I know of course that credit cards are bad, but I don't understand why, if they're going to have the money later that month, they don't put it on a credit card and then pay off the credit card once they have the money. It only costs $20 to do a credit card rent transaction online and no finance charge is more than the $90 they're getting charged for almost being evicted every month
One resident is late almost every month, though she always pays before it gets sent out to be filed at a court. Her excuse is that she doesn't get paid until the 6th. Curious, I decided to look up how much she's paid in late fees since she moved in in Feb of 2002.
She has paid $1400.00